On Tue, 19 Apr 1994, Philippe Nave wrote:
Every one of the remailers I have seen in operation so far provides a 'real' address to the target system. That is, when (not if) someone is irritated by an anonymous posting, they have only to look in the message header to get an address for their hate mail, legal action, mailbombs, etc. This essentially co-opts the remailer operator along with the anonymous poster with regard to content. (Yes, yes, I *know* that the remailers are supposed to be 'anonymous Post Offices.') As Scott Collins' message explained, *he* (the remailer operator) is taking the heat for the alleged copyright violation, and his correspondent is not terribly impressed with Scott's protestations of innocence. Since Scott indicated that he keeps no logs, he is the sole target; this is grossly unfair to an individual who is trying to provide a service. (Yes, yes, 'Life ain't fair,' but sooner or later you're going to run out of martyrs who are willing to take the fall for abuses of their remailers...)
I disagree with Brad's interpretation. For example, if I photocopy a book and anonymously snail mail it to people, do you think the postal service is going to take the fall? Nope - they are just a carrier, and are not responsible for content. Like the common carriers - they just receive a message and pass it along. They aren't responsible for message content. If Brad Templeton's view of the world was the prevailing (or correct) one, then every common carrier in the country, including Ma Bell and the US Postal Service, would not exist, because they would've been sued out of existence long ago. Of course, this situation illustrates yet another interesting twist on the old "denial of service" attacks... I understand Brad's interest in making money from Clarinet's product (and I don't have a problem with him making money), but I think that this "scare tactic" is going a bit too far in protecting corporate revenue. -- Ed Carp, N7EKG/VE3 ecarp@netcom.com 519/824-3307 an88744@anon.penet.fi If you want magic, let go of your armor. Magic is so much stronger than steel! -- Richard Bach, "The Bridge Across Forever"